In a major relief for Anil Ambani, the Delhi High Court in an interim order stayed insolvency proceedings against him and directed him not to dispose of his assets until further order.
Ambani in his petition, relying on a recent order in the matter of businessman Lalit Jain, where Delhi High Court stayed insolvency proceedings and issued notices to MCA, IBBI & Law Ministry.
On Thursday, the division bench of the Delhi High Court, comprising Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar stayed the Mumbai National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order on the appointment of IRP on the assets of Anil Ambani until further order.
The court has also directed all the parties to file their reply before the next date of hearing and has posted the hearing on October 6.
While challenging the appointment of IRP for a personal guarantee given by Anil Ambani for a loan taken by Reliance Communications (RCom) and Reliance InfraTel (RITL), the plea has sought relief under the same premise that the little known businessman Lalit Jain had sought.
“The court has now decided to club both the matters and hear it together,” said a lawyer privy to the development. “The high court has now given interim relief to Ambani and has stayed the proceedings initiated against him under part 3 of Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC).
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Madhavi Diwan is representing IBBI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in the case, while Anil Ambani is being represented by Senior Counsels Harish Salve and JJ Bhatt. While SBI is being represented by Senior Counsel Neeraj Kishan Kaul along with Nirav Shah and Ryan Dsouza of DSK Legal representing SBI.
An email query to Ambani’s spokesperson did not elicit any response immediately.
The SBI had moved the NCLT to recover over Rs 1,200 crore from Anil Ambani under the personal guarantee clause of the bankruptcy law. The lender said Ambani had personally guaranteed loans taken by Reliance Communications, currently undergoing insolvency proceedings, which the state-owned lender is trying to recover.
On August 21 had reported that the Mumbai NCLT has decided to appoint Jitender Kothari as IRP to assess Ambani’s assets and liabilities and take a call on the petition filed by SBI.
RCom had filed for bankruptcy last year. In August last year, lenders submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore.
In March this year, the SBI board approved a resolution plan for RCom that envisaged lenders recovering around Rs 23,000 crore, or less than half of their loans outstanding. RCom owes nearly Rs 5,000 crore to SBI.
Source: Economic Times